News Analysis: GOP, Trump reconcile views on trade to enlarge voter base

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee for 2016 presidential election, and the Republican Party have reconciled some of their views on trade in the party platform, trying to appeal to both pro-trade traditional allies in the business community and blue-collar voters who're more skeptical of trade deals.

"We need better negotiated trade agreements that put America first," said the 2016 Republican Party Platform finalized Monday at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, a formal document that laid out the party's policy principles and adopted Trump's "America first" views toward trade policy.

"A Republican president will insist on parity in trade and stand ready to implement countervailing duties if other countries refuse to cooperate," the platform said, representing a stark contrast with GOP's traditional position of backing free trade in the last three decades.

"It's reasonable to say that the focus of trade is not free trade only, but be fair also. It's a little bit of hybrid of looking at recalibrating what those equities are," Stephen Yates, chairman of the Idaho Republican Party and a member of the 2016 GOP Platform Committee, told Xinhua.

Yates noted that the 2016 platform is "not optimistic" about U.S. trade relations with other countries as the 2012 platform.

Four years ago, under then presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Republicans praised the benefits of free trade agreements in the party platform and criticized the Obama administration for not striking more trade deals. That platform also embraced the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal and promised to complete negotiations to open Asian markets to U.S. products.

But the 2016 party platform didn't mention the TPP specifically, saying that "significant trade agreements should not be rushed or undertaken in a lame-duck Congress," as Republicans were divided on the controversial trade deal.

"That draft that we began deliberation on already had made clear that we were not taking a specific position on TPP in the platform," Yates said, adding that "there is significant political question about proceeding with TPP in its current form."

Yates, a former White House official and a distinguished fellow with the Hamilton Foundation, believed the TPP agreement should be considered or renegotiated by the next U.S. administration.

"When those agreements do not adequately protect U.S. interests, U.S. sovereignty, or when they are violated with impunity, they must be rejected," the platform noted, acknowledging many white voters' frustration with past trade deals.

A Pew Research Center survey in March found that two-thirds of Trump supporters, mainly old white men, said free trade agreements were bad for the United States, while just a quarter said they were good.

However, the 2016 platform still envisions "a worldwide multilateral" free trade agreement among nations committed to the principles of open markets, in which "free trade will truly be fair trade for all concerned."

Experts said Trump had softened his position on trade in recent months, though the New York billionaire developer had attacked the TPP and threatened to leave the North American Free Trade Agreement if Canada and Mexico refuse to renegotiate the deal.

"I think we're moving him a little bit more in a free and fair trade direction," Stephen Moore, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said Wednesday at an event hosted by Politico.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said at the same event that there is some room to work together with Trump on trade issues and agreed with his demands for better trade agreements and stronger enforcement.

Trump picked Indiana Governor Mike Pence, a social conservative with a long record of voting for trade agreements while in Congress, as his running mate last week, the latest sign the candidate was scrambling to solidify the Republican base.

The U.S. business community, which has important influence over Republican Party's policymaking, has criticized Trump's protectionist trade rhetoric and called for advancing trade as one of the core priorities for 2016.

"In a global economy, trade supports U.S. jobs, expands consumer spending power, and helps America compete. We need more of it, not less," Thomas Donohue, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said Monday.

"The business community will have a powerful voice this election year. We are committed to getting the right people elected and the right policies in place to grow our economy and create jobs," Donohue said. Endi